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The next stop on our quest for finding “our spot” is South America – specifically Colombia and Ecuador, where many expats have already found wonderful homes. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that last year we spent 4 months traversing the U.S. on the same quest.

We’ll be travelling for three months, trying to stay a minimum of a week in each of a number of different cities, including Bogota, Cartagena, Medellin, and Popayan (in Colombia), and Quito and Cuenca, at a minimum (in Ecuador). Along the way we’ll be visiting a number of organic and/or fairtrade agricultural communities; volunteering when we can.

So, logistics? Three months, altitudes ranging from sea level and a Caribbean climate to roughly 9000’ and rather chilly at night. We’ve got one rolling bag (High Sierra) and one small backpack (mine, Patagonia) apiece, which we hope will get lighter as we go along, giving up old paperbacks, some small gifts we brought along, and discarding clothing along the way. It’s said “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and though I’m not convinced, here are a couple of pics of the packing process:

All I’m taking, except the raincoat.

It Fit, with lots of rolling!

Moments from Departure

I’ve worked hard at recalling Spanish from a long ago stint as an exchange student in Ecuador (yay, AFS!) courtesy of an app called “Duolingo.” And, we have 4 days of 2-3 hour Spanish lessons beginning the morning of our arrival. Don’t expect any blogging in Spanish though I may toss in the occasional “palabra” so you know I’m working on it!

The first two nights we’ll be at a small B&B called Churro de Queveda, and then we move to an airbnb in the same neighborhood of Candelaria, the historic center of Bogota. Nope, Bogota is not a candidate for our spot, but it is a great place to acclimate, learn a bit of Spanish, and enjoy some good food and culture before we move on. And with that, Buenos Noches de Colombia…

In 2014, we embarked on a journey to explore the world through the lens of organic agriculture, fair trade, small & local businesses (primarily food, beverage & books!). The ultimate goal is to find a spot that seems right for the next chapter, whether in the U.S. or abroad. And so, we’re about to set off again, this time for South America. Stay tuned…

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. Jawaharlal Nehru

About to head to the airport for the flight to London – a few days later we’ll head to Delhi. Excited to put my new boots (light-weight, high tops, pretty color!) to work exploring London-town and then India. Here’s what they look like now, in the front yard snow!

5 days til departure! We planned our trip to India over many months, but the actual tasks involved were simple, echoing the thoughtful research we did during many years of living overseas, transferring between countries, some more familiar than others. In the early years, we didn’t have the benefit of the internet or search engines – the clatter of the fax machine or the sound of a heavy envelope dropping into the mailbox would signal the arrival of eagerly awaited information – to be added to that gathered from conversations with friends of friends who had been where we were going.

This is how it always begins for us:

Consult the world atlas! Yep, even in this GPS and Google Maps world, we haul out the massive Times Atlas of the World (one of the best wedding presents ever), plop it on the table and start dreaming…

Talk with friends, family, and colleagues if they’ve been where you want to go; take notes, especially about what they liked best, worst & what they’d do differently.

Browse the guidebooks in the library to understand not only the possible highlights of the trip, but with an eye on which book (if any) you might purchase to take apart and take with you. Plenty of websites give advice about specific guide books, but looking at them yourself is best of all.

Poke about the web and let serendipity guide your explorations of where other travelers have gone and what they learned – there are blogs aplenty. Copy and paste any ideas that appeal into a word document that can become the basis for your personal guidebook and if there’s even a chance you might reuse any of that info, be sure to note where it came from.

Take a few minutes (or more!) to reflect on why you’re taking this particular trip and let that guide your plans. For example, our India trip takes us to a country neither of us knows well; is quite far away from our east coast USA home; and to which we may not return. So, we’re going for a longer time (4 weeks) and after putting a rough itinerary together ourselves, reached out to a recommended travel service in India to help with reservations and travel logistics – even though that goes against our massive DIY ethic. For India, we were willing to turn some of that responsibility over to someone right there, and treat ourselves to a little less worry.

Read Read Read. The subtitle of the JourneyWise blog is “Read. Travel. Learn it all, over again.” Before a trip, I’ll look for fiction set in the country to which we’re travelling or by native authors. I’ll read essays and other non-fiction, including history, as well as news articles that relate to where we are headed. I’m a reader with deep curiosity, and I love a bookstore – searching them out wherever I go. For India, here’s what I’ve read recently (not including many others read through the years):

Helpful articles to improve your own nature and landscape photography explorations. You will also see stunning landscape and nature photographs created by award winning landscape and nature photographer Melissa Fague.